sbarber49

Was it Elegy from A Downland Suite, as arranged by Alec Rowley. A very beautiful piece that suits the organ perfectly. Mind you, the arranger has abridged the piece somewhat, without comment. In fact, now I look at it, he doesn't even say where it comes from! I only discovered it a couple of years ago.

It IS dedicated to Walford Davies!

Yeah, but surely it's only in rather "low" churches that the clergy wear cassock, surplice, scarf and hood for the Mass?

As long as the mourners don't try to keep in step.

I get one as a subscriber and another as the church contact. They're certainly pushing more "modern" hymns/worship songs - I suppose they want us all to buy copies of the new hymn book which is coming out soon: "Sing Praise".

The only times I've worn one are when I've borrowed my brother's. I have been meaning to buy my own for nearly 40 years, but it's hardly worth it now - especially at that price!

I thought David Flood took over in 1988??

The Duet Suite for orga and piano is effective and good fun.

Hear, hear. Organ accompaniment in Psalms needs to be, in general, gentle. I hate all the talk of big tuba chords and the like to "illustrate" the words. I prefer the organ to enhance the mood rather than imitate birds and water pipes etc. (though none of us is immune to temptation). My ideal is probably Willcocks on the 1st Cd from King's (actually Trinity, of course). The organ (i.e.organist) should not be drawing attention to itself but accompanying.

It seems rather mannered to me - far too much unnatural emphasis on certain syllables.

Certainly not! I quote from the Parish Psalter "Every word must be pronounced clearly and with natural emphasis, as in deliberate reading" and "The length and accentuation of each note (or chord) in the chant must be governed entirely by the words, and not vice versa". Personally I think that the Parish Psalter is pretty good, and a good choir can sing from and produce good results. When I do my own pointing I smooth it out a little. (I think I'm halfway between it and the Oxford Psalter, which is good.) I hate the modern fashion for frequently leaving out chords - ruins chants for me. I can't be doing with the St Paul's Psalter. As for inventing Anglican chant - it's much more interesting than plainsong - much as I like that

If you go to this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/index.shtml you can take part in a survey about Radios 3, 4 & 7. (I realise that theis topic was about a radio 2 programme.) I suggest that if you want to let the BBC know what you think about the coverage of Organ Music on the Radio? you take part in the survey.

Too fast for me.

Oh dear. In that case I think that my 1st 2 choices are the same performance - I must have given preference to the first one because of the picture of the organ!

1st, in spite of the dreadful sound): 2nd (as posted by Vox Humana - but who's playing?): 3rd: No 6

There's the Middelschute one, apparently inspired by Busoni's arrangement. It's in Great Organ Transcriptions edited by Rollin Smith (published by Dover)

I was once told that Karg-Elert used to play a plagal Amen at the end of this piece. I sometimes do - it makes much more sense of the ending of the piece, which can otherwise be a bit of an anticlimax. Can anyone confirm this? I think the "upward rushes" can be played fairly freely - I get the first 8 notes under my fingers before I start, and then a slight change of position for the last 4.

Has anyone mentioned Listen, sweet dove by Ives?

Superb piece, but for Ascensiontide rather than Pentecost. (Although I see it was written for a St Cecilia's Day service for St Andrew's, Holborn.)

I see that "Igor Engraver" is not dead! It was a very good free programme (then became a low-priced programme) that produces very professional results. It was a bit unstable and tended to crash. I used it for years and was sad when it disappeared and I still use it occasionally. From the website (noteheads.com) Due to rumors about NoteHeads circulating on the Internet, we would like to make the following statement: The company has been inactive for a couple of years, after we saved the software from disappearing due to the canceled development in the previous NoteHeads company. We have an upgrade coming out in the near future (free upgrade for current users), together with a new release- and pricing strategy. All owners of the current Noteheads company are still onboard and agree on the current strategy. I previously mentioned Musescore which is a free notation programme - has anyone tried it? I haven't had time, but would be interested in knowing how good it was: http://musescore.org

I play Fêtes (which he dedicated to me), Sarabande for a Wake (from the Kenneth Leighton Memorial Album), a very beautiful Pavane and Versets on Jesu dulcedo cordium

I would be furious if I arrived to play for a concert and found that the organist had locked the pistons. (Unless, of course, he/she owned the organ personally.) I tell visiting organists to change pistons as they like and not to bother changing them back, as I can do it more quickly. If we had multi-channels I would ask them to leave a note to say exactly what they had changed and would expect them to use just one channel of divisionals.

No 1 is available from the new Roger Molyneaux catalogue (www.usedorganmusic.co.uk)

My understanding is that it used to be considered unwise for the organist to be on the PCC. It is not illegal, though - I was on the PCC of my last church.

Looks like this one, which I have just ordered: http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/07613/details.html